Sign in or 
Share this
Putting It All Together
These are the steps to do research:
Therefore, the citations, concept searching, boolean searching, all work together.
Always remember that the citations can be used to find later materials that cite your item.
Here is a practical example:
Figure out your topic:“the role and status of women during the Fascist years in Italy”
Find article/book on your topic: Search the catalog or do a Boolean search for full text.
If the book/article is in a catalog: Examine the record and search the concepts (authors and/or subjects).
If an authority file is available, search the concepts there for other possible terms (In the AUR Library Catalog, this is relatively easy)
"Discover the past"
Examine the relevant citations inside the book/article, e.g.
Search the interesting articles cited in this article using the same method.
"Discover the future"
If we don't have the book, there are other possibilities. See Extending your search to search materials in other Roman libraries, as well as in other databases.
Repeat this for each article and book. You'll probably find that you have plenty of material.
Continue with: Final Comments
- Figure out your topic (using reference sources)
- Find an article or a book on your topic (many times from a citation from the reference source)
- If it is a book and its record is in a catalog, examine the record for controlled vocabulary (the concepts)
- Search these concepts in the authority files to find other terms of interest
- Search all of these terms in the catalog for related books
- Examine the relevant citations in the book or article (Discover the past)
- Search these articles and look at the citations there
- If the item is a journal article, find out if the database has controlled vocabulary (descriptors, thesaurus, subjects) and search these for additional terms
- Search all of the terms in the journal database for related articles
- For the interesting articles, find other articles where they have been cited later, either using special tools such as a citation index or Google Scholar, or using Boolean operators (exact searches) to search for citations within full-text. (Discover the future)
Therefore, the citations, concept searching, boolean searching, all work together.
 | This diagram shows how, once you find an interesting text, it can lead you to other texts by finding related concepts, which finds other texts, which finds other citations, and so on. |
Always remember that the citations can be used to find later materials that cite your item.
Here is a practical example:
Figure out your topic:“the role and status of women during the Fascist years in Italy”
Find article/book on your topic: Search the catalog or do a Boolean search for full text.
Examine: De Grazia, Victoria. How fascism ruled women : Italy, 1922-1945. University of California Press, c1992.
If the book/article is in a catalog: Examine the record and search the concepts (authors and/or subjects).
- Women -- History -- Italy-- 20th century.
- Women -- Government policy -- History -- Italy-- 20th century.
- Fascism -- History -- Italy-- 20th century.
- Italy -- Politics and government -- 1922-1945.
- De Grazia, Victoria.
If an authority file is available, search the concepts there for other possible terms (In the AUR Library Catalog, this is relatively easy)
When we search the LC Authority File for "Fascism", we find the following related concepts that may be of interest, plus a scope note that explains the term more precisely:
"Discover the past"
Examine the relevant citations inside the book/article, e.g.
p. 336: MacGregor Knox, 'Conquest, foreign and domestic, in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.‘ Journal of Modern History, 56, 1984, pp.1-57
Search this using the Journal List
Search the interesting articles cited in this article using the same method.
"Discover the future"
For the articles that are interesting, find other articles where they have been cited later using a citation index (if available), Google Scholar, Microsoft LiveSearch, or search the web using Boolean operators and exact phrase.
Here, we can search Google Scholar for the above article by MacGregor Knox. The article is listed as #2, and we find it has been cited 5 times. You can also search "Related Articles" which can help, and search on the web for it, too.
Here, we can search Google Scholar for the above article by MacGregor Knox. The article is listed as #2, and we find it has been cited 5 times. You can also search "Related Articles" which can help, and search on the web for it, too.
If we look at the record above this, we see that the same author has written a book after 1984. We can search this in the AUR catalog and discover that we have it. This book has a bibliography and the whole cycle can begin again.
If we don't have the book, there are other possibilities. See Extending your search to search materials in other Roman libraries, as well as in other databases.
Repeat this for each article and book. You'll probably find that you have plenty of material.
Continue with: Final Comments
|
j.weinheimer |
Latest page update: made by j.weinheimer
, Aug 3 2007, 7:57 AM EDT
(about this update
About This Update
Edited by j.weinheimer
1 word added 3 words deleted view changes - complete history) |
|
Keyword tags:
None
More Info: links to this page
|
There are no threads for this page.
Be the first to start a new thread.
